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Mobile Commerce Critical to Internet Retailing’s Future

It is no surprise that mobile commerce, or m-comemrce, is imperative to Internet retailing today. Smart phones are playing an increasingly important role in our lives, with people using them to replace watches, pedometers, calendars and even laptops. Businesses are mostly accepting the advantages of going mobile.

But with the pace of technological developments, it seems like a bold assumption to claim that mobile commerce will still be a key driver in Internet retailing’s future. But research firm eMarketer backs this claim up with a study:

“U.S. retail mobile commerce sales (on smartphones and tablets, including sales of digital goods but excluding sales of travel services and event and movie tickets) will soar from $42.13 billion in 2013 (16.0% of total web sales of $263.31 billion) to $132.69 billion in 2018 (27.0% of $491.44 billion), eMarketer says.

Mobile commerce can be looked at broadly and narrowly, says Yoram Wurmser, retail and e-commerce analyst at eMarketer.

“In the narrow sense of capturing sales, tablets will make up the bulk of new sales and will widen an already big lead over smartphones,” Wurmser says. “In 2014, eMarketer expects $38.02 billion in sales on tablets compared to $18.49 billion on smartphones; this already exceeds a 2-to-1 ratio. By 2018, 72.6% of m-commerce will take place on tablets, totaling $96.31 billion. We project that commerce via smartphones will also increase quickly, but not as quickly, reaching $34.63 billion in 2018. Overall, U.S. tablet penetration will rise from 46.2% of the population in 2014 to 52.1% in 2018.”

Following are eMarketer’s new projections for mobile commerce in the years ahead, including year, mobile sales in billions, percent growth, and percent of total web sales: